You asked, we listened - open data now in 18 languages

Submitted by Maryna Taran On Tue, 11/26/2013

Also available in: 中文 | Español | العربية

We ask users of our open data from around the world to send us feedback[1]. The journalists, researchers, students, developers and others we hear from, frequently ask for one thing: to make data available and accessible to the public in their local language.

[2]A student in Indonesia asking for World Bank data in his local language

We listened, and as part of an effort to expand access to our data, we've translated the most popular 70 indicators from the World Development Indicators into 18 local languages - spoken by over 1 billion people around the world.

Our aim is that by translating the country pages into languages used within those countries, we will expand the number of users that benefit from the open data initiative beyond those who speak English, French, Spanish, Arabic or Chinese.

Download data in Portuguese on the Brazil country page

Now users that are viewing a country page on the data site are able to download data for that country in their own language. The download file contains translated indicator names and metadata descriptions.

Now we would like to hear from you - are these improvements useful? Do you have stories about how data in local languages is benefiting your country? Or do you have additional suggestions for improving your experience with the open data resources? Send your ideas to data@worldbank.org[32] or post them on the user forum[1]!